Belarus parliament elections

Sixty CIS observers accredited to monitor Belarus’ parliamentary elections

MINSK, 25 September (BelTA) – The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus has accredited 60 observers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to monitor elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, head of the staff of the CIS observation mission Viktor Guminsky told reporters, BelTA has learned.

“The CIS observation mission has been monitoring Belarus’ parliamentary elections since 4 September. The formation of the mission is still underway. By now, the CEC has accredited 60 observers from the CIS. All in all, the CIS observation mission will include about 400 observers representing the CIS member states, the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State and the CIS Executive Committee,” Viktor Guminsky said.

The work of the CIS observers is coordinated by the staff of the mission that is deployed in the building of the CIS Executive Committee. “Long-term observers monitored the formation of the election commissions of the city of Minsk and Minsk Oblast. The head of the mission, Sergei Lebedev, met with senior officials of the Brest Oblast election commission. The staff of the mission met with representatives of the Supreme Court to discuss the role land competencies of courts related to the electoral process, procedures for processing complaints and appeals by courts,” he informed.

According to Viktor Guminsky, representatives of the mission will soon visit all the regions to monitor the formation of precinct election commissions and registration of candidates. “We are set to interact closely with missions of other international organizations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent invitations to virtually all international organizations: the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ODIHR), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Some of them have already responded, however, we do not have any details,” Viktor Guminsky said.

The CIS observation mission will be guided by the principles of political impartiality, non-interference with the electoral process and domestic affairs of the state. The findings of the mission will be based solely on the observers’ own experience and official information, as well as evidence provided by election commissions.

“The task of the CIS observation mission is to help conduct free and democratic elections. The findings of the mission will be announced at a press conference on 18 November,” Viktor Guminsky said.

The elections to the House of Representatives will be held on 17 November.

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